India-Maldives Row | Muizzju could not fulfill his dream of taking Maldives out of India! India found this solution on the withdrawal of Indian soldiers

In the wake of Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu’s call to withdraw Indian military personnel from his country by March 15, India on Friday said it will work out “mutually practical solutions” with the Maldives to continue operating Indian aviation platforms in the Maldives. “A consensus has been reached. India will replace its military personnel operating three aviation platforms in the Maldives by May 10, the Maldives’ Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It also said that the first phase of the process will be completed by March 10.The statement came after a high-level meeting in Delhi between the two sides amid the diplomatic row.

“Both sides agreed that the Government of India will replace military personnel in one of the three aviation platforms by March 10, and the Government of India will replace military personnel in the other two platforms by May 10,” the Maldives Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Will complete the work.” Muizzu, widely seen as a pro-China leader, had last month asked India to withdraw all its military personnel from the island nation by March 15.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement that the two sides “agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable the continued operation of Indian aviation platforms” that provide humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of Maldives. . It said the two sides continued their discussions on a wide range of issues related to bilateral cooperation towards identifying steps to enhance the partnership, including accelerating the implementation of ongoing development cooperation projects.

The Ministry of External Affairs said it was agreed that the next meeting of the high-level core group would be held in Male at a mutually convenient date. Currently, around 80 Indian military personnel are in Maldives primarily to operate two helicopters and one aircraft, which have carried out hundreds of medical evacuations and humanitarian missions.

Indian platforms have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of Maldives for the last few years. The two sides decided to set up the core group following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai in December last year. It turns out that Indian military personnel can be replaced by civilians who have expertise in operating the three platforms. There was some tension in relations between the two countries after Muizzu came to power in November last year.

After assuming charge as President, Muizzu said that he would keep his election promise of expelling Indian military personnel from the country. The 45-year-old leader had defeated India’s current candidate Ibrahim Mohammad Solih in the presidential election in September last year.